Morphological Asymmetries of Motoneurons Innervating Upper Extremities: Clues to the Anatomical Foundations of Handedness?

Abstract

Handedness is one of the main issues in laterality research and is known to be related to a large number of morphological asymmetries of the central nervous system. However, the main focus of previous studies were cerebral structures, which ignored the spinal cord as the most distal neural entity innervating the muscles of the extremities. We analyzed morphometrically motoneurons from segments innervating the arms and hands and compared them with motoneurons of segments that innervated the upper trunk. We found an asymmetry with larger motoneuron perikaryas on the right side of the spinal cord in segments innervating the upper limbs. To our knowledge this is the first time a morphological asymmetry on single-cell-level was shown in the spinal cord of man. The possible relation of this cellular asymmetry to the origins of handedness is discussed.

Key Words:

• Spinal cord
• lateralization
• morphometry
• prenatal reflexes
• handedness